There is no “I” in “TEAM” and there is no “C” nor “H” nor “L” either. Thus team is utterly useless when making chili. Upon further review, as excludes a full 22 letters, one may correctly deduce that “TEAM” is an uppity and arrogant snob- one to be avoided at all costs.

Today’s chili recipe, on the other hand, has all the bases covered. A chili twanged marinade infusing tender pork rolled in chili crisp coating has us inside, outside living the la vida chili pork.

40 days remain in the chili experiment.

Ingredients:

Marinade:

1 package McCormick’s Hawaiian Luau marinade mix

¼ C olive oil

1/3 C cider vinegar

2 t chili powder

1 t garlic powder

1/8 t cayenne

Meat:

1 ½ lb pork tenderloin, chunked

Coating:

1 C Panko

1 T chili powder

½ t garlic powder

¼ t pepper

1 t Northwoods Seasoning, Penzey’s

Directions:

1) Mix the marinade ingredients and marinade the pork for 10 hours in the refrigerator.

2) Mix the coating ingredients.

3) Coat the marinated pork.

4) Bake at 425F for 28 minutes.

5) Broil for 5 minutes.

Crispy Marinated Chili Pork Nuggets

Tasting Notes:

Eating these tasty nuggets-o-pork is akin to having one’s taste buds T-boned by a circus truck of flavors. Suffice to say, such events overwhelm even the most robust of sensory circuitry. There was substantial heat in the flavor profile but there were also savory elements, and notes of sweetness, and at least a dozen sensations that I am unable to name. Crispy Marinated Chili Pork Nuggets were a vast many things, but not boring. Wow. My palate remains stupefied. There is nothing I would change with regard to flavor. The nuggets, as I made them, fell just short of crispy. This could be the fault of the marinade or inadequate broiling. Regardless, the flavor remained tenaciously intact.

The ITP liked the nuggets. Chili Jr. is willing to shill for them- this is certain. The Pirate dutifully ate hers, interspersing bites with generous gulps of water. Mrs. Chili365 and Pre happily ate the chili pork nuggets. What can I say? My team likes meat.

Thank you to all who are participating in the Ranting Chili’s Diced! Chili Contest– be it by submitting recipes, by viewing the posts, or by voting on your favorites. My submission- Chicken Chili Poutine was chosen for the final round. Take a look at RC’s kick-ass website and vote for your favorite chili.